Where are the hospitality jobs in Australia?

More than 1 million people are out of work in Australia, so where are the jobs?

It’s just over 24 hours since all Australian restaurants, cafes, bars, pubs, events – the whole damned hospitality industry – was reduced to delivery and takeaway services only. The impact on jobs and business is catastrophic. The queues outside Centrelink offices stretch for blocks. The mood is, quite understandably, grim.

The wolves are no longer at the door. They’re in the house. For many, they’re in the goddamn bedroom and you’re hiding under the bed stifling a whimper. But you’re not going down like this. No way. It’s time to give the wolves the slip, pop on some lipstick (works for men, too… sure) and pour yourself one single drink. Now look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself you’ve bloody got this.

Because you bloody well have.

It’s going to be hell. It is. But, if you move swiftly, then, hopefully, you’ll get a li’l bit Katniss Everdeen and the odds will be forever in your favour. Either way, we’ve had a look at what’s around and here are some suggestions that we help will keep your heads high.

We’ve analysed job sites and checked around the country and pulled together a list. It’s not exhaustive, and we’ve added some cray options, but we’ll be adding to it. Hopefully this can point some of you in the right direction of where you can potentially snare a job or other opportunities.

These are desperate times, and there’s not much around, but here we go:

Capital city hospo/ish jobs

We searched seek.com.au by date and using the hospitality and catering field (removing the featured jobs in any of our searches because they may have been posted for some time and possibly not available) and also omitting the recruiters hoping to lure you onto their books for “when the industry opens again” (please don’t, guys) and we’ve only looked at jobs posted in the last day as, possibly, these roles may still be available

In Melbourne, there’s potentially 15 jobs available. Glancing over the current listings and Seek shows there’s jobs available in aged care, mostly in the eastern suburbs. They’re largely casual with rotating rosters and focused on food service and cleaning. Hospitals also appear to be looking. Summary: the health industry is hiring and you may need to travel if you’re based in the inner city. There’s a couple of places looking for delivery drivers, too.

Sydney looks more challenging. Chucking out some of the jobs that seem a tad suss, there’s some work for travel consultants and, again, in aged care. There’s some positions up on the northern beaches, but most are west and south, so inner city peeps are going to have to travel. Brisbane looks really grim with not many potential jobs available: one for experienced cabin crew for a charter airline and one for a customer service officer. There’s also some casual food service work at St Vincent’s Care Services. The Gold Coast shows nothing at all and the Sunshine Coast, just two jobs with one in aged care and the other as a head chef.

Adelaide has one potential listing with aged care provider, ACH Group, looking for several roles as well as one other aged care position. Seeing a pattern? There’s also some cleaning positions at Roxby Downs about five hours north of Adelaide and just a 5-10 minute drive to work at Olympic Dam, the site of the world’s largest uranium deposit and fourth-largest wad of copper. There you go.

If you’re up for a bit of FIFO (Fly In Fly Out) and you have experience in it, then Western Australia still appears to have some positions for chefs and cleaners out of Perth. There’s an aged care job there, too. Hobart has zip. Darwin has a job for a cook and a cleaner and some FIFO chef positions.

Clinical trials

Look, these are not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but researchers are also looking for participants in clinical trials. These typically involve a couple of nights stay in the centre, all your meals etc. in exchange for, well, taking part in a clinical trial. One trial we saw pays $1,450 for a four-night stay and no outpatient follow ups. The Federal Government lists them here but you should also read this beforehand and understand about Phases (Phase 1 is a first-time test of a “new biomedical invention” through to Phase 4 which is “an intervention that has already been marketed. You can find other trials here and here. Make sure you do your homework first.

Fruit picking/Harvesting

If you’re interested in fruit picking/harvesting, there’s jobs around, but please remember that, as of the time of publishing, only Victoria and NSW had their borders open. Every other state has closed its borders and requires 14 days of self-quarantine. And, yep, that’s at your expense. Be safe, consider the community, and do your research (as you would with any job). You can find out more here and there are also some jobs in the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula seemingly available here.

Of course, these won’t suit everyone and please, please, PLEASE do your research first and follow all current health advice including social distancing, hand washing etc and keep this front and centre at all time. Remember, we’re not an employment agency, we’re just trying to help where we can. We’ll be advising of any jobs we here are going so make sure you’re following us on social, K?

Do you have a job or know of one going? Email us, please, and we’ll get the word out: info@grammagazine.com.au

GRAM is an Australian magazine dedicated to how a nation experiences all things food and drink. It does away with traditional food magazine formulas, preferring a journalistic approach. Published by qualified and experienced journalists, GRAM features news, features, analysis and investigations of the industry. We do not accept payment for our journalism. We do not publish reviews. We are not bloggers (we love them, but there's a difference) and we absolutely are not "influencers" (just don't).

GRAM magazine is a bi-monthly print/digital magazine of how a city experiences all things food and drink. It does away with traditional magazine formulas, offering instead a snapshot of articles, opinions and reviews, published online by local food writers.